Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.IMPORTANT!

This is the ROBERT TEMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE. It contains descriptions and notes relating to almost 18,000 titles in the fields of British and American literature, being the bulk of the stock that has passed through our hands since 1984, with the addition of a few earlier items of especial interest. Books currently in stock are not included, and it is therefore necessary to supplement your search by looking at our Current Catalogues. For the most part full bibliographical descriptions are given, though for some earlier items, catalogued when computing space was more restricted the details given are quite brief. For an account of the conventions adopted, the abbreviations used, and reference sources consulted, please see our information pages.

Please note: The arrangement here is the same as that adopted in our current catalogues, and as there our larger files are presented in sections for ease of downloading. At the end of each section you are invited to browse the next.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SMITHERS (Henry, Of the Adelphi). Affection, With Other poems. Printed for the author, By T. Bensley, Bolt Court; And sold by William Miller, Albemarle Street; And Mess. Arch, Cornhill, 1807. Roy.8vo; bound up without the half-title; final blank; pp.[iii]-[xxii]+210+[ii]; stipple engraved frontispiece and one plate; three large very fine engraved head-pieces; final blank; old half roan, marbled boards. Leather chipped and torn, but binding strong; plates foxed, with offsetting onto facing leaves; light offsetting from engravings; a very little scattered light foxing and marginal dusting; internally in general very nice.

One of the engravings is by Freeman; the others are by Schiavonetti, a pupil of Bartolozzi: after designs by Masquerier (five) and Guido Reni (one). A large paper copy.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SOTHEBY (William). The Iliad and Odyssey Of Homer, Translated By William Sotheby; Illustrated by the designs of Flaxman. G. and W. Nicol, Pall-Mall; J. Murray, Albemarle-Street, 1834. 2 Vols. only, ex four, being the Iliad complete. Lge.post 8vo; half-title apparently not called for in volume one, not present in volume two; fly-title in volume one; blank or advertisement leaf possibly lacking at end of volume two; vignette title-page and engraved frontispiece in each volume (that to volume two bound in to face p.390, which is its correct position in the text); map, and twenty other plates in volume one, seventeen in volume two; old half calf, blind and gilt, contrasting labels, cloth sides, sprinkled edges. Poor copy.

The upper margin of the title-page in volume one bears a presentation inscription to F.S. Sotheby, the author's son, dated 19th October 1835, and signed M.E.S. or W.E.S. This is not, at any event, the translator, who died during 1833. A slip pasted on to the verso of the frontispiece in that volume records the subsequent presentation of the volumes by Lt.Col F.S. Sotheby at Cawnpore in 1841 to a Dr. G.G. Brown.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SOUTHEY (Robert). Poems. The second volume. Bristol: Printed by Biggs and Cottle, For T.N. Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster-row; [apparently sic, but possibly the point is a corner of a risen quad] London, 1799. Pott 8vo; bound up without the half-title; pp.[iii-viii]+232; early half-calf, tooled gilt on spine, matching marbled boards and end-papers; binder's blank at front and back. Marbled paper chipped over boards; front end-paper lacking; small corner torn from large blank lower corner of title-page; short tears in blank margins of two leaves; a very little dusting and marking passim; in general, nonetheless, a nice copy.

Published separately. The ‘first volume' had appeared, under Cottle's imprint, in 1797, and was partly made up of the Southey section of ‘Poems' 1795, which itself was a joint production of Southey with Robert Lovell. Longmans bought out Cottle's copyrights in 1800, and thereupon brought out an edition of ‘Poems' in two volumes, that being the first combined edition proper. CBEL, III, p.180; ESTC, T139934

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SOUTHEY (Robert). The Curse of Kehama. The second edition. Volume the first [second]. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-row, 1811. 2 Vols., 12mo; half-title not present in volume one, probably not called for in volume two; title leaf to volume one followed by dedication leaf, Contents to Volume First, two leaves of Preface (verso of second blank), epigraph leaf (signed ‘b'), and leaf bearing glossary of the Hindu pantheon, before start of text; pp.[iii]-[xvi]+261; [iv]+215+[i (blank)]; old quarter calf, marbled sides, vellum corners. In need of re-backing; first gathering of text in volume one slightly proud; one leaf chipped at lower margin and restored with matching paper; scattered light dusting passim. As a working copy.

First published in one volume 4to in 1810, the present edition would appear to be both the first 12mo edition and the first edition in two volumes. It may be quite scarce: CBEL, III, p.180 does not record this 1811 printing, listing instead a two volume edition of 1812 as the second English printing (there was also an American edition in 1811).

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SOUTHEY (Robert, Esq., Poet laureate, And Member of the Royal Spanish Academy). Roderick, The Last of the Goths. Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-row, By James Ballantyne and Co. Edinburgh, 1814. Demy 4to; bound up without half-title; fly-title to the Notes; pp.[iii]-[xii]+[1]-340+[i]-cxxxvii+[1 (blank)]; early half green calf, brown label and five raised bands on spine, marbled sides, burnished sprinkled edges, drab faced end-papers. Calf splitting over front joint, and worn at corners; boards a little rubbed; two or three leaves very lightly foxed, and upper margin of three leaves slightly damp-stained, otherwise internally a fine copy.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SOUTHEY (Robert, Esq., Poet Laureate, Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, and of the Royal Spanish Academy of History.). The Poet's Pilgrimage To Waterloo. Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster Row, 1816. 12mo; half-title not called for; engraved frontispiece, and seven plates by G. Cooke after E. Nash; pp.[viii]+232; early quarter brown ribbon-embossed cloth, original blue boards and paper spine-label; a.e. uncut. Boards lightly rubbed; contemporary Book Society labels on front board and front end-papers, later library labels on verso of front end-paper and facing inserted blank; old ink marks on back of frontispiece; scattered foxing and marking; back end-papers renewed; a very good copy, nonetheless, and very sound.

There is no list of plates, but they are bound in to face pp.57, 59, 69, 70, 71, 89, and 93. CBEL, III, p.180

Second issue of ‘Wat Tyler', the title-page bearing a quotation from Shakespeare instead of one from Southey. The last gathering consists of eleven leaves: the terminal advertisement leaf is lacking. CBEL, III, p.180; Tinker, 1964.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SOUTHEY (Robert). A Tale of Paraquay. By Robert Southey, Esq. LL.D., Poet Laureate, Member of the Royal Spanish academy, of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, Of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, Of the Cymrodorion, Of the American Antiquarian Society, Of the Royal Irish Academy, Of the Bristol Philosophical and Literary Society, &c. &c. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster-row, 1825. 12mo; half-title not called for; pp.[xx]+199+[i (advertisements)]; contemporary quarter calf, marbled sides, parchment corners, spine ruled and lettered gilt and with label; sprinkled edges. Label lacking, calf chipped at head and tail of spine, and cracked over joints (but boards firmly attached); otherwise a nice copy.

One of the most pretentious title-pages we have come across: one wonders why he did not expand the ‘etcs.'! CBEL, III, p.180

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

SPERO. Imagination: An Original Poem, In two parts. David Bogue, 86, Fleet Street, 1850. Lge.12mo; half-title not called for; blank at end; pp.[80]; vertically ribbed yellow green cloth, ruled blocked and patterned green through gilt on sides, lettered gilt and green through gilt on front cover; a.e.g.; end-papers coated yellow. Cloth of spine chipped and delicate; end-papers and facing leaves foxed; small chip from extreme upper margin of title-page, due probably to an original binding fault; otherwise a very nice copy.

The anonymous author's first work, dedicated, by permission, to Charles Dickens. It is made clear in the Dedication that Dickens had read the poem before publication, and since it was Dickens's habit with such neophyte productions to offer what help and suggestions he could in respect of the text, it is possible this may have happened here - though, if it did, no indication of the fact is given.

With the ownership inscription of Wasey Sterry on the front end-paper. Most of the initials and (sometimes cryptic) personal references scattered through the volume have here neatly been supplied in pencil, presumably in his hand. Lightly tipped on to the back end-paper is a holograph letter, signed, from the author to Sterry, c.35 words, dated from 18, Trinity Street Cambridge, ‘Jan (?or June) 22. 91.' The author's first book, of which this first edition is uncommon. Subsequent editions had revisions and altered contents. CBEL, III, p.357

The author's second book. Printed at the Cambridge University Press. The front end-paper bears a bold inscription: ‘Edward O. P. [?]Bonveni / from / Eglantine / Xmas 1891'. Lightly tipped on to the back end-paper is a holograph letter to the same (2pp. 8vo, c.80 words) from Herbert Stephen, dated from 32 De Vere Gardens, W., 4 Feb 1892, telling of the author's death: "Jim, who had been ill & unable to take food, but not in an alarming condition, for a fortnight, was taken much worse on Tuesday, and died yesterday afternoon. My mother and Harry and I were with him . . .".

With the rather pretentious engraved pictorial, emblematic, heraldic, portrait, ‘W.E.G.' bookplate of Herbert John Gladstone on the front paste-down, the later pencilled ownership inscription of P.J. Croft, sometime librarian of King's College Cambridge and editor of ‘Autograph Poetry in the English Language', the small book-label affixed to books from his library presented as mementoes to his friends after his death, and a letter from one of his daughters presenting the volume to Dr. Desmond Flower, originator of the idea of the ‘Autograph Poetry' volumes, and partial collaborator in their production, tipped in. Flower has unfortunately not affixed his bookplate. Perhaps there wasn't room! The author's second book. Printed at the Cambridge University Press.

The Esher copy, with the bookplate of Oliver Brett, Viscount Esher, on the front pastedown, and his small, initialled, neat pencilled notes regarding provenance and an issue point on the verso of the front end-paper and the front blank. The first issue, with the earliest date of the catalogue. McKay, 445.

McKay 643. One of 500 copies. Stevenson's mother's copy, with her signature on the front blank. P.38 bears a ms. addition in her hand to the poem ‘If This were Faith': "Another VERSE NOT published", followed by a stanza of eight lines beginning "Wanted Volunteers". This stanza is recorded elsewhere from other ms. sources, but here differs slightly in respect of three lines from any other version we can trace.

One of an edition limited to only 100 numbered copies, printed upon large Dutch hand-made paper, and signed by the publisher. An unusual cover design for its period, the sides being split vertically half cloth, half board. In our experience a good deal scarcer than other Stevenson limited editions, even where the limitation was smaller! Prideaux 36, note, failing to describe the binding; Slater, p.39, describing a variant binding of ‘half buff cloth'; McKay 572. The first collected edition.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

STEVENSON (R.L.) and HENLEY (W.E.). Three plays: Deacon Brodie; Beau Austin; Admiral Guinea. Published by David Nutt In The Strand, 1892. Copyright leaf precedes half-title page; imprint leaf at end; vertically fine ribbed dark jade green cloth, dated gilt on front cover, lettered and with short rule gilt on spine; t.e.g., others uncut. Spine and edges of covers faded, but somewhat less so than is usual with this volume; slight wear to cloth at headband; otherwise a very nice copy.

Prideaux 36; McKay 571. The first trade and first collected edition. The variant with white end-papers.

ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File H: Nineteenth Century Poetry & Drama. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.

STOCK (The Right Rev. Joseph, D.D., Bishop of Killalla, And M.R.I.A.). The Book of Job: Metrically arranged according to the Masora, And Newly translated into English. With Notes critical and explanatory: Accompanied on the opposite page by the Authorized English Version. Printed by Richard Cruttwell, St. James's-Street, Bath; And sold by Wilkie and Robinson, Paternoster-Row, London; and Mercier, And Archer, Dublin, 1805. 4to; half-title not called for; integral advertisement leaf at end; old cloth. Gilt library stamp on spine, and two faint rubber stamps on text-margins; margins of title-page a little marked, and one or two small marks on other margins; otherwise a very nice copy.

"A pitiful link to the flambeaux of the prosperous/Is he that is ready to slip with the feet." Superb!

Review copy, inscribed on the dedication leaf in the author's holograph: ‘For favour of Review. / With the Author's compliments. / C. Fred. James N. Stott / The Reviewer is requested to notice / the Sonnets.'. One hundred and forty-three copies were subscribed for, among others, by Cardinal Newman. The second volume of verse by this author, whose first volume, ‘Tentative Poems', ran to a second edition in this year, the first having consisted of 250 copies. Stott was successively Assistant Tutor at the Grammar School, Altrincham, and Hesketh Park College, Southport.

Printed on hand-made paper, after the style of the Kegan Paul volumes of the same date. Essentially a collected works. Reprints, with revisions, the author's earlier volumes, Clifton Grove Garland and other poems, Nottingham, 1848; and Rose's Diary and Other Poems, Manchester, 1854, together with a few new poems. The present copy was evidently issued in Manchester, and bears the imprint of J.E. Cornish on both front cover and spine. Reilly, p.459

The second edition of Swain's first book, originally published in the preceding year. This second edition adds a new two page dedication to the author's uncle, Charles Tavare. This is apparently a family copy, the signature ‘S. Tavare' appearing on the first blank. CBEL, III, p.308

First edition, second published issue, probable first state. Simon Nowell-Smith, The Book Collector, Autumn 1964, query 184; Wise, 3, but a variant not recorded by Wise, without the single inset fly-title to Rosamond, or the single inset four line errata leaf between pp.208 and 209, and with a single inset five line Errata on p.[vii] in place of the fly-title to The Queen Mother called for by Wise in his description of a copy of the first published issue. The dedication leaf is also different, reading ‘Affectionately inscribed / to / Dante Gabriel Rossetti' and not merely ‘To Dante Gabriel Rossetti', as stated by Wise - but this is a mistake on Wise's part, all issues in fact having the same dedication as in the present copy. Swinburne's first book, and easily the scarcest of his regularly published works. Five variants of the book are in fact known, rather than the three assumed by Wise, the first (first issue, suppressed first state) having an integral (Pickering) title-page, without the explanatory sub-title ‘Two plays'; the second (first issue, second state) being identical with the first, except that the title-page is a cancel, on which the sub-title has been added; the third (second issue, probable first state) having a cancel title (without a sub-title) bearing the Moxon imprint and printed on a slightly thinner paper than the text, the integral blank being present at the end as here, and usually but not always being made up without the inset fly-titles; the fourth (second issue, probable second state) being as the third except that the title is on text-paper and the final blank is lacking (it presumably having been used to print the title); and the fifth (third issue) having a Hotten title-page, and often, but by no means usually, being without the fly-titles. We hypothesize that copies of the Moxon issue with the title-page on thinner paper were taken over from Pickering ready bound, whilst those with the text-paper title may have been taken over as unbound sheets. According to Wise, 250 copies of the book were printed at the Chiswick Press for issue by Basil Montagu Pickering, and he states on the authority of Pickering "that less than twenty copies of the book had passed into circulation before it was withdrawn, and the . . . title-page cancelled. Most of these were sent out for review". Unfortunately for Wise, he had never come across the suppressed first issue, and did not realise that his copy of the Pickering issue had a cancel title. Since the Moxon title-page is still dated 1860, he assumed that Moxon took over the book before publication, and issued it during 1861. The English Catalogue of books lists the volume as a Pickering publication for December 1860, this being evidently the intended date of issue. Advance copies appear to have been sent out for review and to the author simultaneously: but Swinburne objected to the misleading title-page, and insisted on the cancel, which made December publication impossible. Most unusually, the book was re-advertised in the English Catalogue for January 1861, again as a Pickering publication. It was not advertised for Moxon until July 1865, the English Catalogue there recording it as a ‘New Edition', apparently because Moxon described all small format volumes as ‘12mo'. It was transferred to Hotten in 1866, and advertised by him in November of that year, whilst a ‘Second Edition', correctly so described, was advertised by Hotten in September 1868. Swinburne must certainly have returned most of his complimentary copies of the suppressed first state, since the two known dedication copies, and such presentation copies as we have been able to get information concerning, exhibit the later state of the title-page. Probably the numerical information given by Pickering were correct if applied merely to the first state of the first issue. Mark Samuels Lasner, to whom we are indebted for much of the above information (though not for the deductions based on it!), and also for drawing our attention to the Nowell-Smith query, believes that the first state of the first issue is the rarest of the four variants, and the second state of the first issue is the commonest - as would be expected from the publishing chronology - and he has located no fewer than thirty copies of the latter issue. Moxon had the book for only sixteen months, as against Pickering's fifty-four, whilst Hotten, who seems never to have let any of Swinburne's books go out of print, had it for twenty-three months before he reprinted it - and this may be some guide to the comparative scarcity of the several issues, though Swinburne's rising reputation has also to be taken into account, as also the differential survival values of supposed first as against clearly subsequent issues. The variant errata leaf in the present copy appears to be otherwise unrecorded.

First edition, second published issue, probable second state. Simon Nowell-Smith, The Book Collector, Autumn 1964, query 184; Wise, 3, but a variant not recorded by Wise, without the single inset fly-title to Rosamond, or the single inset four line errata leaf between pp.208 and 209, and with an integral five line errata on p.[vii] in place of the fly-title to The Queen Mother called for by Wise in his description of a copy of the first published issue. The dedication leaf is also different, reading ‘Affectionately inscribed / to / Dante Gabriel Rossetti' and not merely ‘To Dante Gabriel Rossetti', as stated by Wise - but this is a mistake on Wise's part, all issues in fact having the same dedication as in the present copy. Swinburne's first book, and easily the scarcest of his regularly published works. Five variants of the book are in fact known, rather than the three assumed by Wise, the first (first issue, suppressed first state) having an integral (Pickering) title-page, without the explanatory sub-title ‘Two plays'; the second (first issue, second state) being identical with the first, except that the title-page is a cancel, on which the sub-title has been added; the third (second issue, probable first state) having a cancel title (without a sub-title) bearing the Moxon imprint and printed on a slightly thinner paper than the text, the integral blank being present at the end, and usually but not always being made up without the inset fly-titles; the fourth (second issue, probable second state, as here) being as the third except that the title is on text-paper and the final blank is lacking (it presumably having been used to print the title); and the fifth (third issue) having a Hotten title-page, and often, but by no means usually, being without the fly-titles. We hypothesize that copies of the Moxon issue with the title-page on thinner paper were taken over from Pickering ready bound, whilst those with the text-paper title may have been taken over as unbound sheets. According to Wise, 250 copies of the book were printed at the Chiswick Press for issue by Basil Montagu Pickering, and he states on the authority of Pickering "that less than twenty copies of the book had passed into circulation before it was withdrawn, and the . . . title-page cancelled. Most of these were sent out for review". Unfortunately for Wise, he had never come across the suppressed first issue, and did not realise that his copy of the Pickering issue had a cancel title. Since the Moxon title-page is still dated 1860, he assumed that Moxon took over the book before publication, and issued it during 1861. The English Catalogue of books lists the volume as a Pickering publication for December 1860, this being evidently the intended date of issue. Advance copies appear to have been sent out for review and to the author simultaneously: but Swinburne objected to the misleading title-page, and insisted on the cancel, which made December publication impossible. Most unusually, the book was re-advertised in the English Catalogue for January 1861, again as a Pickering publication. It was not advertised for Moxon until July 1865, the English Catalogue there recording it as a ‘New Edition', apparently because Moxon described all small format volumes as ‘12mo'. It was transferred to Hotten in 1866, and advertised by him in November of that year, whilst a ‘Second Edition', correctly so described, was advertised by Hotten in September 1868. Swinburne must certainly have returned most of his complementary copies of the suppressed first state, since the two known dedication copies, and such presentation copies as we have been able to get information concerning, exhibit the later state of the title-page. Probably the numerical information given by Pickering were correct if applied merely to the first state of the first issue. Mark Samuels Lasner, to whom we are indebted for much of the above information (though not for the deductions based on it!), and also for drawing our attention to the Nowell-Smith query, believes that the first state of the first issue is the rarest of the four variants, and the second state of the first issue is the commonest - as would be expected from the publishing chronology - and he has located no fewer than thirty copies of the latter issue. Moxon had the book for only sixteen months, as against Pickering's fifty-four, whilst Hotten, who seems never to have let any of Swinburne's books go out of print, had it for twenty-three months before he reprinted it - and this may be some guide to the comparative scarcity of the several issues, though Swinburne's rising reputation has also to be taken into account, as also the differential survival values of supposed first as against clearly subsequent issues. The variant errata leaf in the present copy appears to be otherwise unrecorded.

Wise 9, stating, incorrectly, that only 100 copies of this first edition were printed. Swinburne, in a letter to Watts-Dunton, gives the number as 500, which seems probable. (More than 100 copies are now in the John S. Mayfield collection at Georgetown). The present example is a perfect copy as intended for issue by the printer, with the cancel leaf at pp.85-6, the corrections on pp.50 and 73, and the initial letters D, A, B, on p.108 in correct alignment. There are at least four variants of the binding; in the present example the single medallions measure 26mm across, and in the double medallion, the one that is superimposed has the curved stalk of the palm frond pointing upwards and towards the spine. The binding was designed by D.G. Rossetti.

The correct first state of the binding, bearing the date 1865 at foot of spine; and the first state of the text, with the Moxon title page and leaf F6 (pp.75-6) being integral, rather than, as almost always with the Moxon issue, a cancel mounted on a stub. The second line on p.75 here has the original reading ‘chasser et courir?', instead of the altered reading ‘en chasse courir?' Of the total of 1,000 copies printed, at least three issues were made by Moxon: the present issue, in red cloth and with leaf F6 both integral and bearing the unaltered text; and two issues with F6 in the cancelled state, one in red cloth and the other in a similar blue cloth, all these issues bearing the date 1865 both on the title page and spine. We have no record of copies with the Moxon title-page, 1865 on the spine, and with F6 integral, being in blue cloth, though such an issue may in fact exist. Wise, 18, does not record the presence of any cancel text leaves for this title, and states, without adducing reasons, that copies in red cloth are secondary. This is obviously wrong as is demonstrated both by the existence of copies such as the present one, and also by the fact that Hotten, who took over the sheets (and some bound copies), issuing them with a cancel title-page (and binding, for the unbound copies,) dated 1866, continued to bind in both colours of cloth, there being evidently an established call for such colour variants, perhaps to enable purchasers to match them with the similarly variant copies of the 8vo edition of ‘Atalanta in Calydon'. Hotten appears not to have bothered to insert the cancel leaf, and copies with 1866 on the spine usually, if not always, exhibit the original state of text.

The correct first state of the binding, bearing the date 1865 at foot of spine, one of two colour variants (some copies being issued in blue cloth); but the second state of the text, with leaf F6 (pp.75-6), as almost always with the Moxon issue, a cancel mounted on a stub. The second line on p.75 has here the altered reading ‘en chasse courir?', in place of the original ‘chasser et courir?' Of the total of 1,000 copies printed, at least three issues were made by Moxon: an issue in red cloth, with leaf F6 both integral and bearing the unaltered text; and two issues with F6 in the cancelled state, one in red cloth as here, and the other in blue, all these issues bearing the date 1865 on both the title page and spine. We have no record of copies with the Moxon title-page, 1865 on the spine, and with F6 integral, being in blue cloth, though such an issue may in fact exist. Wise, 18, does not record the presence of any cancel text leaves for this title, but he states, without adducing reasons, that copies in red cloth are secondary. This is obviously wrong, as is demonstrated both by the existance of red cloth copies with F6 uncancelled, and also by the fact that Hotten, who took over the sheets (and some bound copies), issuing them with a cancel title-page (and binding, for the unbound copies,) dated 1866, continued to bind in both colours of cloth, there being evidently an established call for such colour variants, perhaps to enable purchasers to match them with similarly variant copies of the 8vo edition of ‘Atalanta in Calydon'. Hotten appears not to have bothered to insert the cancel leaf, and copies with 1866 on the spine usually, if not always, exhibit the original state of text.

Wise 19. Wise's second state, with the cancel, (Hotten), title-page, but in fact the second state of the binding (one of two colour variants), and the third (or possibly fourth) state of the text. Wise fails to note the absence of a half-title in this issue, but it was certainly never included in the present copy. Of the total of 1,000 copies printed, at least three issues were made by Moxon: an issue in red cloth, with leaf F6 both integral and bearing the unaltered text, some copies being known with that leaf (pp.75-6) a cancel mounted on a stub and the second line on p.75 having the altered reading ‘en chasse courir?', in place of the original ‘chasser et courir?'; and two issues with F6 in the cancelled state, one in red cloth, and the other in blue, all these issues bearing the date 1865 on both the title page and spine. We have no record of copies with the Moxon title-page, 1865 on the spine, and with F6 integral, being in blue cloth, though such an issue may in fact exist. The remaining sheets, together with some bound volumes, were taken over by Hotten in 1866, and issued with a cancel title-page, copies taken over as sheets being issued, as here, with the date 1866 at the foot of the spine, and without the cancel for F6 being inserted. Wise does not record the presence of any cancel text leaves for this title. Nor does he specifically note the existence of copies of the Hotten issue in red cloth, and it is possible that he had never seen one. Red cloth copies both of the Moxon and of the Hotten issues are, at any rate, in our experience, a good deal scarcer than the blue cloth ones.

Wise 38. Wise does not record copies with a cancel title page. It is here identical in every way with the integral title-page more usually seen, and we are unable to guess the reason for the cancel. We have doubts about Wise's description of this as a ‘remainder' binding. The spine bears the date 1867 at foot, the advertisements all date from 1867, and the binding matches that of the first edition of ‘Chastelard'. Copies seem to have been produced in all the various bindings used before, presumably for people who desired matching sets. There are, however, at least three variants of this blue cloth binding. In the first variant, which has the catalogue bound in between the end-papers, the cloth is vertically ribbed, and the ‘F' in ‘OF' has an outwardly angled serif descending from the end of the top arm to the mid level of the lower arm, and the spine bears at the foot the date ‘1867'. The second is identical with the first, except that the date at the foot of the spine reads ‘1868'. The third, which may be Wise's ‘remainder' issue, has the date ‘1867' at the foot of the spine, but is in smooth buckram, has the catalogue bound in after the blank, and the ‘F' in ‘OF' has a short serif, barely angled outwards, and not extending downwards as far even as the top of the upward stroke of the serif terminating the lower arm. The present copy is of the first variant. John Quinn's copy, with his bookplate.

First edition sheets, but a later issue, bound identically with the vertically ribbed blue cloth variant of the first issue, except that the date on the spine is here ‘1868' instead of ‘1867'. Wise 38 records that "In . . . 1868, a so-called Second Edition of ‘A Song of Italy' was published. Messrs. Chatto & Windus have informed me that this consisted of a portion of the stock of original sheets of the book for which 1,000 fresh titles, noted as ‘Second Edition,' were printed on June 1st, 1868." The later date on the spine of the present copy ought, presumably, to indicate that it belongs to this later issue. It does not have the cancel title-page, however, and since we cannot recollect ever having seen a copy so furnished, we have doubts as to whether, if they in fact were printed, such titles were used. 1,000 copies - a third of the entire edition - could scarcely so completely have disappeared, and, in our experience, even copies bearing the date 1868 on the spine are extremely scarce. In this copy on the eleventh page of the terminal advertisements, the ‘p' of ‘printed' in the first entry (Anacreon's Odes) is badly battered, not perfect as in some copies; on p.[1] of the advertisements inserted at the front, 5ll. from foot, ‘Jocasta' appears correctly printed, the ‘o' of the preceding ‘no' and the second ‘t' of ‘without' on the line above being printed too heavily; on p.8 of the advertisements the ‘W' in ‘WEEKLY' 11ll. from foot is likewise printed perfectly, and there is on this page no damaged type.